In Era of Black Lives Matter, Films Focus on Emmett Till Lynching

Image

Emmett Till in 1955, the year he was killed.CreditCreditvia Associated Press

By David Holmberg

Aug. 30, 2016

Simeon Wright, nearly 13, a Mississippi sharecropper’s son, shared a bed with his 14-year-old cousin, Emmett Till, on the fateful night of Aug. 28, 1955. Till, visiting from Chicago, was taken from the room that night by two white intruders and, in the next few terrible hours, became the victim of one of the most infamous racial crimes in American history, when he was tortured and murdered for supposedly whistling at a white woman.

More than six decades later, the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and the string of controversial killings of black men by the police have given new impetus to efforts to film the story of Till, with at least three screen adaptations in the works.

Mr. Wright, now 73, said he would soon meet with Whoopi Goldberg to share his memories of Till’s last days; producers of the feature film “Till,” based partly on Mr. Wright’s memoir, “Simeon’s Story” (2010), said she had signed on to direct. Also in the works is a six-part HBO series, with Jay Z and Will Smith among the producers, based on what many consider the definitive history of the case. And there’s a planned biopic from Shatterglass Films, produced by Chaz Ebert, the widow of the critic Roger Ebert, that will focus on Till’s mother, Mamie Till Mobley. (Mrs. Mobley’s play, “The Face of Emmett Till,” is the basis for a fourth film that has been announced, but producers did not respond to requests for comment.) Mrs. Mobley’s decision to hold an open-coffin funeral for her young son resulted in the publication of searing images of his mutilated body and worldwide headlines that became a clarion call for the civil rights movement.

There were major commemorations on the 50th anniversary of the tragedy, in 2005, and next month, when the National Museum of African American History and Culture opens in Washington, an exhibition on Till’s death is expected to be such an emotionally wrenching experience that docents will be on hand to help visitors. But there have been few onscreen examinations of the episode, and they have been mostly nonfiction, like the prominent documentarian Stanley Nelson’s 2003 examination of the case for PBS’s “American Experience” series, and a controversial documentary the same year by Keith Beauchamp, a producer and screenwriter for Ms. Goldberg’s film.

Mr. Beauchamp said the country’s tense racial climate following shootings of blacks by the police, and retaliatory killings of the police, was the “tipping point” giving renewed impetus to Ms. Goldberg’s participation. “That’s what made us do this,” he said.

Ms. Goldberg’s representatives did not respond to requests for comment on the project.

Film history is filled with multiple titles on a single subject, and Ms. Ebert said she did not feel there was a rivalry among the Till projects: “The history of this nation and of the civil rights movement is much too important to be claimed exclusively by any one person or project.”

Her biopic is based on “Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America,” by Till’s mother and Christopher Benson, a University of Illinois professor who teaches African-American studies and journalism. Mr. Benson said the biopic would be informed by his close working relationship with Mrs. Mobley, who died in 2003. She “had a concern about the way his story would be treated in Hollywood,” he said, adding that with her “authentic voice,” the film would seek a “deeper understanding of race relations in America.”

HBO executives declined to discuss their project’s status, saying that it was in “active development” and would be “an immersive and in-depth exploration of the Emmett Till story.” It’s based on what is widely deemed the most comprehensive book on the subject, “Emmett Till: The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement,” by Devery Anderson.

Mr. Anderson said the HBO series and Ms. Goldberg’s film were “such different projects” that they were hard to compare.

A friendly rival with Mr. Beauchamp, Mr. Anderson said he hoped that documentarian wouldn’t put himself in “Till,” the Goldberg feature film, to advance his theories about the case.

Mr. Beauchamp’s 2003 documentary, “The Untold Story of Emmett Till,” drew criticism for its speculation on the number of possible co-conspirators in the killing. (Mr. Beauchamp said he would not be a character in the feature film.)

Filming of his script for “Till” is scheduled to begin next year in Mississippi, though Mr. Beauchamp declined to give details of the movie’s financing. Among the producers is Fred Zollo, whose credits include the civil rights dramas “Mississippi Burning” (1988) and “Ghosts of Mississippi” (1996).

In addition to Mr. Wright’s book, the foundation of “Till” will be Mr. Beauchamp’s own research into the case, including previously unreleased F.B.I. files.

“I have stuff that’s not in Devery’s book,” Mr. Beauchamp said, adding that he respected the other filmmakers, but that it was “ a battle” to be the first to release a work.

For Mr. Wright, the film is a chance to remember his cousin and remind viewers of the monumental injustice done. Till’s killers, Roy Bryant, husband of the white woman at the center of the case, and his half brother J. W. Milam, were acquitted by an all-white jury that deliberated for little more than an hour. The pair later confessed to the crime in an interview with Look magazine. “The main thing I don’t want to lose in the film is the verdict,” Mr. Wright said. “Besides Emmett’s death, that’s what really enraged us.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page C3 of the New York edition with the headline: In Era of Black Lives Matter, Filmmakers Focus on an Infamous Crime. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe